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Tutankhamen: Amenism, Atenism and Egyptian Monotheism/with Hieroglyphic Texts of Hymns to Amen and Aten

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E. A. Wallis Budge's book on the Egyptian King Tutankhamen was written in 1923, only a year after Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb. The book goes over the history of, not only Tutankhamen, but also of the relgion of ancient Egypt, being at this time Amenism and Atenism. A good portion of the book also discusses the king Aakhunaten (his spelling, otherwise known as Amenhetop IV. Amenhetop being the previous name at the time of inauguration, if you will, in which the reigning religion was Amenism (thus tutenkhAMEN, and AMENhetop), which was polytheistic. Once gaining having his revelation that the Sun god Ra is the one and the all mighty, he changed his name to Akhenaten, changing the religion to Atenism (thus AkhenATEN). Many theologists, historians and anthropologists have argued that Atenism is indeed the first monotheistic religion in history which would predate Judaism. Many of Budge's translations of hieroglyphics into the English language has been argued and disputed times over, yet his books still makes for a good read. Can get dry at times.

This little book reviews the development of the Egyptian solar religion and is an extension of Budge's former book "Egyptian Religion" published in 1899. The present one was published in 1923 immediately after the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb but was apparently written somehat earlier. Information on Tutankhamen takes up only 13 of the 152 text pages.As such it does not contribute new data and has been superseded by the works of more contemporary archeologists.
The book may be of interest to historians but the general reader can find more up to date information in other publications.